Methods for characterizing compositions comprising peanut antigens

ABSTRACT

Methods for determining an in vitro release profile of peanut allergens in a sample are provided. Methods for determining one or more signatures of peanut allergens in a sample are provided.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/272,094, filed Dec. 29, 2015, and French Patent Application No.163306642.6, filed Dec. 8, 2016, each of which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

SEQUENCE LISTING

The instant application contains a Sequence Listing which has beensubmitted electronically in ASCII format and is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety. Said ASCII copy, created on Mar. 31, 2017, isnamed 587084 SA9-180 SL.txt and is 59,435 bytes in size.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods for characterizing e.g.,determining release profiles, allergen signatures and the like, oftherapeutic compositions comprising peanut allergens for use intreating, alleviating or otherwise reducing peanut allergy in a subject.

BACKGROUND

Peanut allergy develops when the body's immune system has an abnormalhypersensitivity response to one or more peanut allergens. Peanutallergy is one of the most common food allergies in both children andadults. It receives particular attention because it is relativelycommon, typically lifelong, and can cause severe allergic reactions.Peanut allergy is the leading cause of anaphylaxis and death due to foodallergy. It can lead to significant burden on patients and theirfamilies. Peanut is a common food ingredient making strict avoidancedifficult. Therefore, there is a relatively high rate of accidentalpeanut ingestion for those trying to avoid peanuts. For these reasons,peanut allergy has become an important public health issue.

Research is currently underway focused on the development ofcompositions for the treatment of peanut allergy. Methods are needed fordetermining in vitro peanut allergen release data of known and newlydeveloped compositions, both for quality control and to predict in vivorelease profiles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is based in part on the discovery of highlysensitive methods to determine release profiles of allergens and/or todetermine allergenic signatures of compositions comprising allergens.The methods described herein provide the sensitivity and accuracy neededto profile peanut allergens present in a sample, such as a proteinextract, a therapeutic composition, or a dissolution or release mediumand to allow measurement of low level, relevant allergens present in thesample. In exemplary embodiments, the methods include the step ofdetecting allergen digest products that exist in one or more isoforms ofone or more allergens in the sample. The identification of allergendigest products found in multiple isoforms of a peanut allergen providesqualitative and quantitative information about a sample, which can beindicators of batch-to-batch consistency, and can provide a releaseprofile of allergens stored on or in a substrate, such as, e.g., ananoparticle.

In one aspect, the invention features a highly sensitive method fordetermining a signature of peanut allergens in a composition. The methodincludes the step of digesting peanut allergens present in a composition(e.g., medium or other sample) from the composition to generate allergendigest products, fragmenting the allergen digest products to generatepeptide fragments, detecting and identifying the allergen digestproducts by mass spectrometry, and determining the signature of peanutallergens in the composition. In particular embodiments, the methods areused to determine a signature of one or more peanut allergens that arepresent in low concentrations in a composition. The signature includesthe type and quantity (e.g., relative quantity) of allergens in thecomposition.

In certain embodiments, the composition is an aqueous medium, such as anaqueous pharmaceutical composition, an analytical sample, a dissolutionmedium or a release medium. In some embodiments, the total amount ofpeanut allergens in the composition is very low. For example, the amountof a particular peanut allergen (e.g., Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3 or Arah6), may be less than about 2 μg/ml, less than about 1.5 μg/ml, lessthan about 1 μg/ml or less than about 0.5 μg/ml, e.g., about 0.2 μg/ml.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises the step of comparinga peanut allergen signature to a signature standard. The signaturestandard can be a peptide profile set by a regulatory authority, such asthe FDA (Food and Drug Administration) or EMA (European MedicinesAssociation), a peptide profile established by industry standards, or aprofile set by expectations as determined by repeated experimentation.The signature standard can specify the types and relative amounts ofpeanut allergens that are expected to be found in a sample.

In certain exemplary embodiments, the allergen digest products arebetween about 4 amino acids and about 50 amino acids in length, betweenabout 6 amino acids and about 30 amino acids in length, or between about15 amino acids and about 20 amino acids in length, or are about 15, 16,17, 18, 19 or 20 amino acids in length

In certain exemplary embodiments, the steps of fragmenting the allergendigest products and detecting the peptide fragments are performed by amethod that includes tandem mass spectrometry, such as LiquidChromatography-tandem Mass Spectroscopy (LC-MS-MS), nano tandem MassSpectroscopy (nanoLC-MS-MS) or nano High Performance LiquidChromatography-tandem Mass Spectroscopy (nanoHPLC-MS-MS).

In certain exemplary embodiments, the signature (e.g., peanut allergensignature and/or signature standard) comprises one or more Ara h1allergen digest products having an amino acid sequence selected from thegroup consisting of SEQ ID NO:17, SEQ ID NO:70, SEQ ID NO:177, SEQ IDNO:155, SEQ ID NO:93 and SEQ ID NO:40. In some embodiments, thesignature comprises allergen digest products from Ara h1, Ara h2 and Arah6. In other embodiments, the signature comprises allergen digestproducts from Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3 and Ara h6. In some embodiments,the signature includes one or more allergen digest products having aminoacid sequences selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:17, SEQID NO:70, SEQ ID NO:177, SEQ ID NO:197, SEQ ID NO:198, SEQ ID NO:199,SEQ ID NO:200, SEQ ID NO:201, SEQ ID NO:236 and SEQ ID NO:237. In someembodiments, the signature includes one or more allergen digest productshaving amino acid sequences selected from the group consisting of SEQ IDNO:17, SEQ ID NO:70, SEQ ID NO:197, SEQ ID NO:198, SEQ ID NO:199, SEQ IDNO:200, SEQ ID NO:201, SEQ ID NO:236 and SEQ ID NO:237.

In some embodiments, allergen digest products suitable for use inestablishing a peanut allergen profile are present in more than oneisoform of a peanut allergen, such as in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12,14, 16 or more isoforms of a particular allergen (e.g., an Ara h proteinor polypeptide). For example, an allergen digest product suitable foruse in a peanut allergen signature profile can be present in one or anycombination of in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or more of isoforms of Ara h1, in2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or more of isoforms of Ara h2, in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8 or more of isoforms of Ara h3, and/or in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or moreof isoforms of Ara h6. In some embodiments, an allergen digest productsuitable for use in a peanut allergen signature profile is present inall isoforms of one or more peanut allergens.

In certain exemplary embodiments, peanut allergens are digested with oneor more proteases. For example, peanut allergens may be digested withone or more proteases selected from the group consisting of trypsin,endoproteinase Lys-C and endoproteinase Arg-C.

In certain exemplary embodiments, a composition comprising peanutallergens further comprises an internal standard. For example, in someembodiments, the internal standard comprises one or more heavy isotopes,such as ¹³C and/or ¹⁵N. In certain embodiments, the internal standard isnot a full-length allergen, but is instead a fragment of the peptide.The fragment is typically less than 50 amino acids long (such as, e.g.,between about 4 and about 50 amino acids long, between about 6 and about30 amino acids long, or between about 10 and about 20 amino acids long).In some embodiments, the fragment has the sequence of an expected orpredicted allergen digest product. In one embodiment, the internalstandard is comprised of multiple peanut allergen peptides, each labeledat the C-terminus with a heavy isotope. For example, an exemplaryinternal standard can comprise any combination of two or moreisotope-labeled fragments of an Ara h1 peptide, two or moreisotope-labeled fragments of an Ara h2 peptide, two or moreisotope-labeled fragments of an Ara h3 peptide and two or moreisotope-labeled fragments of an Ara h6 peptide. In one embodiment, acomposition comprising peanut antigens is digested with trypsin, astandard mix comprising ¹³C and/or ¹⁵N-labeled peanut allergen peptidesis added to the digested mix, and then the composition is assayed byfragmentation, e.g., by mass spectrometry, such as e.g., LC-MS, orLC-MS-MS.

In certain exemplary embodiments, a signature comprises allergen digestproducts that do not contain missed proteolytic cleavage sites.

In another aspect, the invention features a method for determining arelease profile, e.g., an in vitro release profile, of a compositioncomprising one or more peanut allergens. In one embodiment, the methodincludes obtaining one or more samples from the composition at each of aplurality of time points, digesting the peanut allergens present in theone or more samples to generate allergen digest products, fragmentingthe allergen digest products to generate peptide fragments, anddetecting the peptide fragments for at least two of the plurality oftime points to determine the release profile of the peanut allergens.The composition can be, for example, a peanut extract, a therapeuticcomposition comprising peanut allergens, a dissolution medium or ananalytical sample. In some embodiments the composition is an aqueousmedium. In some embodiments, the amount of peanut allergens in thecomposition is very low. For example, the amount of a particular peanutallergen (e.g., Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3 or Ara h6), may be less thanabout 2 μg/ml, less than about 1.5 μg/ml, less than about 1 μg/ml orless than about 0.5 μg/ml, e.g., about 0.2 μg/ml, or are about 15, 16,17, 18, 19 or 20 amino acids in length. In some embodiments, allergensin a sample taken from a composition are digested to produce allergendigest products between about 4 amino acids and about 50 amino acids inlength, between about 6 amino acids and about 30 amino acids in length,or between about 15 amino acids and about 20 amino acids in length. Thepattern of allergen digest products obtained after digestion creates apeptide signature for the sample.

In some embodiments, the steps of fragmenting the allergen digestproducts and detecting the peptide fragments include one or more of aseparation method and a peptide detection method. For example, in someembodiments, the steps of detecting and identifying the peptidefragments include performing methods such as LC-MS-MS, nano-LC-MS-MS,HPLC-MS-MS, or nanoHPLC-MS-MS. In some embodiments, the peptidesignature includes a collection of fragments from one or more of peanutproteins Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3, Ara h4, Ara h5, Ara h6, Ara h7, Ara h8,Ara h9, Ara h10, Ara h11, Ara h12 and Ara h13.

In some embodiments, a peptide signature includes one or more Ara h1allergen digest products having amino acid sequences selected from thegroup consisting of SEQ ID NO:17, SEQ ID NO:70, SEQ ID NO:177, SEQ IDNO:155, SEQ ID NO:93 and SEQ ID NO:40.

In some embodiments, the peptide signature comprises one or moreallergen digest products from any combination of Ara h1, Ara h2 and Arah6, or one or more allergen digest products from any combination of Arah1, Ara h2, Ara h3 and Ara h6.

In some embodiments, the signature comprises one or more allergen digestproducts having amino acid sequences selected from the group consistingof SEQ ID NO:17, SEQ ID NO:70, SEQ ID NO:177, SEQ ID NO:197, SEQ IDNO:198, SEQ ID NO:199, SEQ ID NO:200, SEQ ID NO:201, SEQ ID NO:236 andSEQ ID NO:237.

In certain embodiments, allergen digest products are present in morethan one isoform of a peanut allergen, such as in one, two, three, fouror all isoforms of a peanut allergen, such as in one, two, three, fouror all isoforms of Ara h1. In one embodiment, the allergen digestproducts are in more than one peanut allergen isoform.

In certain exemplary embodiments, the peanut allergens are digested withone or more proteases, such as one or more proteases selected from thegroup consisting of trypsin, endoproteinase Lys-C and endoproteinaseArg-C.

In certain embodiments, a sample, e.g., a sample taken from an extractor pharmaceutical composition, further comprises an internal standard.An internal standard is typically a peptide having the sequence of anexpected or predicted allergen digest product, and is typically lessthan about 50 amino acids long (such as between about 4 and about 50amino acids long, between about 6 and about 30 amino acids long, orbetween about 10 and about 20 amino acids long or about 10, about 11,about 12, about 13, about 14, about 15, about 16, about 17, about 18,about 19 or about 20 amino acids long). The internal standard can beadded to the composition prior to sampling, and/or added to the sampleprior to the enzymatic digestion step. In certain exemplary embodiments,the internal standard comprises one or more heavy isotopes, such as,e.g., ¹³C and/or ¹⁵N.

In some embodiments, the signature comprises allergen digest productsthat do not contain missed (uncleaved) proteolytic cleavage sites.

In some embodiments, the composition comprises a particle that encasesthe allergens and/or has allergens bound to the surface. The particlecan be, for example, a nanoparticle, a microparticle, a film, a capsuleor a hydrogel.

In some embodiments, the release profile is obtained over a period oftime, such as, e.g., over a period of hours, e.g., a three-hour periodof time, a six-hour period of time, a twelve-hour period of time, or atwenty-four hour period of time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present inventionwill be more fully understood from the following detailed description ofillustrative embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings.

FIGS. 1A-1C depict a high quality Ara h1 peptide (SEQ ID NO:70)identified by tryptic digestion followed by MS-MS. (A) depicts thesequence, the number of uncleaved trypsin cleavage sites (“missed”), thepercentage of False Discovery Rate (FDR), the number ofpost-translational modification sites (“PTM”), confirmation in BLAST(Basic Local Alignment Tool) that the identified sequence is unique tothe target protein (“BLAST”), the database searched, and the number ofisoforms in the database that included the identified sequence. (B) and(C) depict MS-MS data in Table form and graphical form, respectively.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention is based in part on the development of sensitiveanalytical methods for measuring and profiling peanut allergens presentin a composition, such as an extract or a therapeutic composition, andfor determining a release profile, such as an in vitro release profile,from formulated compositions comprising peanut allergens. The methodsinclude the detection of peptides that exist in one or more isoforms ofone or more allergens in a sample. The identification of peptides foundin multiple isoforms of a peanut allergen provides qualitative andquantitative information about a sample, which can be indicators ofbatch-to-batch consistency, and can provide a release profile ofantigens stored on or in a substrate, such as a nanoparticle. Themethods are particularly useful for profiling allergen content incompositions containing a very low amount of peanut allergens.

As used herein, the terms “peanut,” “groundnut” and “Arachis hypogea”are used interchangeably, and refer to a legume belonging to theLeguminosae family and the Papillionacea subfamily. Over 17 differentpeanut allergens have been identified. Peanut protein allergens includeAra h1, Ara h2, Ara h3, Ara H4, Ara h5, Ara h6, Ara h7, Ara h8, Ara h9,Ara h10, Ara h11, Ara h12, Ara h13, Ara h14, Ara h15, Ara h16 and Arah17. GenBank Accession Numbers for the cDNA sequences of exemplaryallergens include L34402.1 (Ara h1), AY007229.1 (Ara h2.0101),AY158467.1 (Ara h2.0201), AF093541.1 (Ara h3.0101), AF086821.1 (Arah3.0201), AF059616 (Ara h5), AF092846.1 (Ara h6), AF091737.1 (Ara h7),EU046325.1 (AraH7.0201), AY328088.1 (Ara h8.0101), EF436550.1 (Arah8.0201), EU159429.1 (Ara h9.0101), and EU161278.1 (Ara h9.0201),AY722694.2 (Ara h10.0101), AY722695.1 (Ara h10.0201), DQ097716.1 (Arah11), EY396089.1 (Ara h12), EY396019.1 (AraH13), AAK13449 (Arah14.0101), AAK13450 (Ara h14.0102), AAT11925 (Ara h14.0103), AAU21501(Ara h15.0101), respectively (see, e.g., Leon et al., The peanut allergyepidemic: allergen molecular characterization and prospects for specifictherapy. Expert Rev. Mol. Med. Vol. 9, Issue 1, January 2007; see alsoArkwright et al., IgE Sensitization to the Nonspecific Lipid-TransferProtein Ara h 9 and Peanut-Associated Bronchospasm, BioMed ResearchInternational, vol. 2013, Article ID 746507; see url addressallergen.org/search.php?allergensource=Arachis+hypogaea).

In an exemplary embodiment, a signature of allergen digest products in asample is obtained by digesting peanut allergens present in the sampleto generate allergen digest products, fragmenting the allergen digestproducts to generate peptide fragments, and detecting and identifyingthe peptide fragments to obtain the signature of allergen digestproducts. As used herein, an “allergen digest product” refers to apeanut allergen present in an extract or sample that is digested, e.g.,using an enzyme (e.g., trypsin, endoproteinase Lys-C, endoproteinaseArg-C and the like) to generate a product that is smaller than theintact allergen. The term “allergen digest product” also refers to theamino acid sequence of a peptide that would be produced if the peanutallergen were enzymatically digested.

As used herein, an “allergen” refers to a subset of antigens (e.g.,peanut peptide antigens) which elicit the production of IgE in additionto other isotypes of antibodies. The terms “allergen,” “naturalallergen,” and “wild-type allergen” may be used interchangeably.

As used herein, an “antigen” refers to a molecule (e.g., a peanutpeptide) that elicits production of an antibody response (i.e., ahumoral response) and/or an antigen-specific reaction with T-cells(i.e., a cellular response) in an animal.

Non-limiting examples of enzymes, specifically proteases, that aresuitable to digest peanut allergens to generate allergen digest productsinclude, but are not limited to, trypsin, endoproteinase Glu-C,endoproteinase Asp-N, chymotrypsin, endoproteinase Lys-C, andendoproteinase Arg-C, pepsin, papain, thermolysin, subtilisin, proteaseK, bromelain, sulfhydryl-specific protease (ficin) and the like.

As used herein, a “peptide fragment,” or “gas phase peptide fragment,”refers to any part or portion of the allergen that is smaller than theintact natural allergen that is generated by a fragmentation method thatdoes not utilize an enzyme. Typically, fragmentation conditions areintroduced in the gas phase, e.g., in a mass spectrometer step. Incertain exemplary embodiments, a peptide fragment is less than 50 aminoacids long, e.g., between about 2 and about 50 amino acids in length,between about 6 and about 30 amino acids in length, or between about 15and about 20 amino acids in length or any values or sub-ranges withinthese ranges. In certain exemplary embodiments, a peptide fragment isabout 2, about 3, about 4, about 5, about 6, about 7, about 8, about 9,about 10, about 11, about 12, about 13, about 14, about 15, about 16,about 17, about 18, about 19, about 20, about 21, about 22, about 23,about 24, about 25, about 26, about 27, about 28, about 29, about 30,about 31, about 32, about 33, about 34, about 35, about 36, about 37,about 38, about 39, about 40, about 41, about 42, about 43, about 44,about 45, about 46, about 47, about 48, or about 49 amino acids inlength.

In certain exemplary embodiments, a peptide fragment is generated byfragmenting an allergen digest product, and then using a separationprocess and a peptide identification method, such as LiquidChromatography-tandem Mass Spectroscopy (LC-MS-MS), nano-LC-MS-MS, HighPerformance Liquid Chromatography-tandem MS (HPLC-MS-MS),nanoHPLC-MS-MS, UltraPerformance-tandem MS (UPLC-MS-MS), nanoUPLC-MS-MS,and Ultra High Performance-tandem MS (UHPLC-MS-MS), nanoUHPLC-MS-MS, orthe like.

According to certain exemplary embodiments, a method described hereinfurther comprises mass analyzing allergen digest products and/or peptidefragments using a mass analyzer. The mass analyzer typically comprises atriple quadrupole mass analyzer. According to other embodiments the massanalyzer may comprise a mass analyzer selected from the group consistingof: (i) triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, (ii) an orbitrap, such as aFourier transform orbitrap, such as an Orbitrap ELITE™ (ThermoScientific); (iii) a Fourier Transform (“FT”) mass analyzer; (ii) aFourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (“FTICR”) mass analyzer; (iii)a Time of Flight (“TOF”) mass analyzer; (iv) an orthogonal accelerationTime of Flight (“oaTOF”) mass analyzer; (v) an axial acceleration timeof flight mass analyzer; (vi) a magnetic sector mass spectrometer; (vii)a Paul or 3D quadrupole mass analyzer; (viii) a 2D or linear quadrupolemass analyzer; (ix) a Penning trap mass analyzer; (x) an ion trap massanalyzer; and (xiii) an electrostatic Fourier transform massspectrometer.

In certain exemplary embodiments, the methods described herein utilize aseparation process such as a chromatography method, e.g., liquidchromatography. According to an embodiment, fragmenting the allergendigest products and/or detecting and identifying the peptide fragmentsis performed by: (i) High Performance Liquid Chromatography (“HPLC”),(ii) anion exchange, (iii) anion exchange chromatography; (iv) cationexchange; (v) cation exchange chromatography; (vi) ion pairreversed-phase chromatography; (vii) chromatography; (viii) singledimensional electrophoresis; (ix) multi-dimensional electrophoresis; (x)size exclusion; (xi) affinity; (xii) reverse phase chromatography;(xiii) Capillary Electrophoresis Chromatography (“CEC”); (xiv)electrophoresis; (xv) ion mobility separation; (xvi) Field AsymmetricIon Mobility Separation or Spectrometry (“FAIMS”); (xvii) capillaryelectrophoresis; and (xviii) supercritical fluid chromatography.

According to certain exemplary embodiments, the method further comprisesionizing allergen digest products and/or peptide fragments in a sampleto be analyzed. The ion source may comprise a continuous ion source.According to an embodiment, the ion source may be selected from thegroup consisting of: (i) an Electrospray ionization (“ESI”) ion source;(ii) a Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (“MALDI”) ion source;(iii) a Desorption Ionization on Silicon (“DIOS”) ion source; and (iv) aDesorption Electrospray Ionization (“DESI”) ion source.

The peanut allergen signatures described herein are generally determinedby measurement of multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) transitionsconsisting of the peptide precursor ion, one or more fragment ions and aretention time. This measurement is performed, for example, on a triplequadrupole instrument. The signature can also be obtained by acombination of retention time and accurate high resolution massspectrometric analysis of the intact peptide. These quantitation methodstypically require a labeled internal standard and an external syntheticpeptide calibration curve. In one embodiment, a signature is obtained bya nano-LC/MS/MS (nLC-MS-MS) analysis where as many peptides as possibleare fragmented and identified by database analysis and nLC/MS/MSdatasets consisting of retention time and mass/charge values andintensity are measured and compared to determine global proteomechanges.

In certain exemplary embodiments, internal standards are used thatinclude a combination of two or more allergen digest products fromprotein allergens, such as from one or more of Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3,Ara h4, Ara h5, Ara h6, Ara h7, Ara h8, Ara h9, Ara h10, Ara h11, Arah12, Ara h13, Ara h14, Ara h15, Ara h16 and Ara h17. The internalstandards typically have a known peptide sequence and are provided in aknown quantity. In some embodiments, the internal standards include acombination of allergen digest products from the peanut allergens Arah1, Ara h2 and Ara h6. In other embodiments, internal standards are usedthat include a combination of allergen digest products from Ara h1, Arah2, Ara h3 and Ara h6. In certain exemplary embodiments, a sample caninclude one or more internal standards that comprise one or anycombination of allergen digest products listed in Tables 19-23. In someembodiments, the standards are labeled, such with one or more heavyisotopes, e.g., ¹³C or ¹⁵N.

In certain embodiments, the allergen digest products chosen tocharacterize the composition uniquely represent the peanut allergen orpeanut allergen isoform family and are present in the majority or in allisoforms of the allergen it is derived from, enabling its usage forspecific quantitation of the allergen in question, e.g., peanutallergens. Accordingly, in certain exemplary embodiments, a signature ofallergen digest products is generated. As used herein, a “signature,” or“allergenic signature” refers to the presence of a particularcombination and amount of specific peanut allergen digest products(e.g., Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h6 and/or Ara h3 allergen digest products).In certain exemplary embodiments, a signature comprises 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27,28, 29, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100 ormore distinct allergen digest products, each distinct product having aunique sequence.

The selection of peptides for use in a peanut allergen signature can bebased on the identification of isoforms that include the peptidesidentified by the steps of digestion and fragmentation. A variety ofsequence databases can be used to identify the sequences of peanutallergen isoforms, including UniProt (online at uniprot.org, and whichincludes the Swiss-Prot and TrEMBL databases), the database at AllergenNomenclature (online at allergen.org), GenBank (online atncbi.nlm.nih.gov), GeneCards (online at genecards.org), Ensembl (onlineat ensemble.org), and the like.

Any sequence alignment algorithm can be used to identify the isoformsthat include the peptides identified following digestion andfragmentation of a sample comprising peanut allergens. Exemplarysequence alignment algorithms include BLAST (online atblast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi), Clustal Omega (online atebi.ac.uk/Tools/msa/clustalo), and the like.

The peanut allergen profiling methods can be useful for a variety ofpurposes. For example, the methods described herein are useful forperforming batch-to-batch reproducibility assessments inpeanut-containing compositions. The methods described herein are alsouseful for measuring the release or leakage of peanut allergens from thesurface or interior of a vessel or substrate, such as from a bead or aparticle (e.g., a nanoparticle or microparticle), a capsule, a film or astrip (such as, e.g., for sublingual administration of the composition),or a gel (such as a hydrogel).

In some embodiments, the peptide signature includes peptides thatinclude one or more immunogenic epitopes, or one or more immunodominantepitopes of one or more peanut allergens. Peptide signatures thatcomprise immunogenic epitopes or immunodominant epitopes can provide astandard for the immunogenicity of a composition comprising peanutallergens.

As used herein, a “sample” refers to any composition containing peanutallergens. Exemplary samples include, but are not limited to,peanut-containing extracts, peanut-containing powders, analyticalsamples comprising one or more peanut allergens, pharmaceuticalcompositions (e.g., therapeutic vaccines), dissolution or release mediaand the like. In typical embodiments, a sample will be aqueous.

A sample for use in the allergen profiling methods featured in theinvention can be a peanut extract, such as an extract made from wholeroasted or raw peanuts, or from peanut flour. The extract can be for usein a pharmaceutical composition, such as for the treatment or preventionof peanut allergy. The extract can be used in a composition for oralimmunotherapy (OIT), or sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), or in acomposition for use in a nanoparticle composition, with or without anadjuvant. By assessing the peanut allergen signature of the peanutextract, batch-to-batch consistencies can be monitored. The peanutallergen signature can also be used as a factor to deduce theimmunogenicity of the extract, as extracts with similar signatures areexpected to have similar immunogenic properties.

In some embodiments, the amount of peanut allergens in the compositionis very low. For example, the amount of a particular peanut allergen(e.g., Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3 and/or Ara h6), may be less than about 2μg/ml, less than about 1.5 μg/ml, less than about 1 μg/ml or less thanabout 0.5 μg/ml, e.g., about 0.2 μg/ml.

Peanut protein extracts can be made by methods known in the artincluding defatting and/or filtration methods to produce peanut allergenpreparations.

A sample for use in the allergen profiling methods described herein canbe a therapeutic composition, such as a liquid formulation foradministration orally, sublingually, mucosally, intradermally,subcutaneously, intravenously, intramuscularly, parenterally or byinhalation.

In some embodiments, a therapeutic composition will be in the form of afilm or a strip. A sample can include a piece of the film dissolved in abuffer prior to analysis by the allergen profiling methods describedherein.

In other embodiments, the sample will include a substrate, such as ananoparticle, a capsule, a film or tablet, or a gel, such as a hydrogel.The allergen profiling methods described herein are useful to assayrelease of peanut allergens from the substrate, such as, e.g., from ananoparticle or capsule, or from a film or a hydrogel. The release canbe from the interior of the substrate, e.g., a particle, or from theexterior (e.g., a surface) of a substrate. In one embodiment, therelease profile is assayed by performing a complete release of peanutallergens and then assaying for a controlled release, such as over aperiod of time or in different culture or solution conditions (e.g., atdifferent temperatures, pH or the like). The amount of allergen releasedin the controlled release assay is typically reported as a fraction orpercentage as compared to the amount of allergen released under thecomplete release conditions.

In certain exemplary embodiments, two or more signatures obtained atspecific points in time can be used to determine an in vitro releaseprofile of peanut allergens in a sample containing a substrate (e.g., anaqueous sample, e.g., a dissolution or release medium). An in vitrorelease profile can be determined over a period of hours, days or weeks.In certain exemplary embodiments, a release profile is obtained over aperiod of time of about 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 or about 24 hours. In certainexemplary embodiments, a release profile is obtained over a period oftime of about 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or about 7 days. In certain exemplaryembodiments, a release profile is obtained over a period of time ofabout one week, about two weeks, about three weeks, about four weeks,about five weeks, about six weeks, about seven weeks, or about eightweeks. In certain exemplary embodiments, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 or more signatures areobtained over a particular period of time. For example, the releaseburst of peanut allergens can be assessed within the first 24 hours inevenly spaced time points with sufficient data to determine the burstkinetics followed by the release of the remaining amount of the sameallergens from the sample to help assess overall product compositionperformance. The release profile can include types of allergens releasedfrom the substrate and/or the relative amounts of allergen released.

In one embodiment, the methods described herein indicate release ofallergen from the surface of a substrate, e.g., a nanoparticle, bydetecting a burst of peptides in a dissolution or release medium nearthe start of the assay. If allergen is present in the interior of thesubstrate, the detection of allergen over time will be more gradualaccording to the rate of release. Allergen that is both present on thesurface of a substrate and encapsulated within the substrate may beidentified by an initial burst of peptide detection in the dissolutionor release medium near the start of the assay, as antigen from thesurface is released from the substrate, followed by a more gradualincrease in peptide detection in the dissolution or release media asallergen is released (e.g., leaked) from the interior of the substrate.

As used herein, “dissolution medium,” “dissolution media,” “releasemedium” and “release media” refer to a composition that is used toprovide in vitro drug release information. Dissolution or release mediais useful, for example, for quality control testing of a sample fordetermining the release and/or stability of allergen in the sample. Inchoosing a suitable dissolution or release medium, it is useful todetermine the analytical target profile of the allergen (e.g., delayedrelease, constant release, extended release and the like) and/or theallergen solubility profile. For a review of dissolution mediaselection, see Martin and Gray (Summer 2011) Journal of ValidationTechnology.

As used herein, “release rate” refers to the rate that an entrappedpeanut allergen agent flows from a composition and into a surroundingmedium in an in vitro release test. In one exemplary embodiment, thecomposition is first prepared for release testing by placing thecomposition into the appropriate in vitro release medium. This isgenerally performed by exchanging the buffer after centrifugation topellet the substrate (e.g., a synthetic nanocarrier), and reconstitutingof the substrate using mild conditions. In certain embodiments, theassay is started by placing the sample at 37° C. in an appropriatetemperature-controlled apparatus. A sample is typically removed atvarious time points.

As used herein, a “release profile” refers to the types of proteinsand/or peptides, e.g., peanut allergens, that are released from asubstrate or vessel over time, and may also include the rate at whicheach particular protein, peptide and/or allergen in or on the substrateor vessel is released.

“Exhibits a pH-sensitive dissociation” refers to a coupling between twoentities, such as a peanut allergen and a substrate, e.g., a carriermolecule, that is significantly reduced or eliminated by exposure of thetwo entities to a change in environmental pH. In certain embodiments,relevant pH-sensitive dissociations may satisfy any of the relationshipsor combinations thereof provided herein.

In certain exemplary embodiments, a pharmaceutical composition comprisesnanocarriers and/or microcarriers, such as synthetic nanocarriers and/orsynthetic microcarriers. As used herein, a “synthetic nanocarrier” or“synthetic microcarrier” refers to a discrete object that possesses atleast one dimension that is less than or equal to 5 microns in size.

In some embodiments, the mass balance is compared between one or morepeanut allergens in one or more compositions to be compared, such as ina sampling from a composition over a period of time across differenttime points, or between different batches made at different times,and/or by different methods. The comparative data can be presented as arelative quantitation, and are typically expressed as a fraction or as apercentage.

Pharmaceutical compositions containing peanut allergens can generally beformulated with carriers, excipients, and other agents that providesuitable transfer, delivery, tolerance, and the like. Exemplaryformulations include, for example, powders, pastes, ointments, jellies,waxes, oils, lipids, lipid (cationic or anionic) containing vesicles(such as LIPOFECTIN™), anhydrous absorption pastes, oil-in-water andwater-in-oil emulsions, emulsions carbowax (polyethylene glycols ofvarious molecular weights), semi-solid gels, and semi-solid mixturescontaining carbowax. See also Powell et al. “Compendium of excipientsfor parenteral formulations” PDA (1998) J. Pharm Sci. Technol.52:238-311.

“Pharmaceutically acceptable excipient” refers to a pharmacologicallyinactive substance added to a composition (e.g., a therapeuticcomposition) to further facilitate administration of the composition.Pharmaceutically acceptable excipients include, but are not limited to,calcium carbonate, calcium phosphate, various diluents, various sugarsand types of starch, cellulose derivatives, gelatin, vegetable oils,polyethylene glycols and the like.

“Dosage form” refers to a drug (e.g., one or more peanut allergens) in amedium, carrier, vehicle or device suitable for administration to asubject.

“Effective amount” refers to that amount effective for a certainpurpose. For example, when the effective amount is for a therapeuticpurpose, an effective amount is an amount that treats, alleviates,ameliorates, relieves, delays onset of, inhibits progression of, reducesseverity of and/or reduces incidence of one or more symptoms or featuresof a disease, disorder and/or condition provided herein, e.g., a peanutallergy.

“Subject” refers an animal, including mammals such as humans andnon-human primates; avians; domestic household or farm animals such ascats, dogs, sheep, goats, cattle, horses and pigs; laboratory animalssuch as mice, rats and guinea pigs; fish; and the like.

As used herein, “vaccine” refers to a composition of matter thatimproves the immune response to a particular disease or disorder. Avaccine typically contains factors that stimulate a subject's immunesystem to recognize a specific antigen (e.g., a peanut antigen) asforeign and eliminate it from the subject's body. A vaccine alsoestablishes an immunologic “memory” such the antigen will be quicklyrecognized and responded to if a subject is re-challenged. Vaccines canbe prophylactic (for example to prevent future infection by anypathogen) or therapeutic (for example a vaccine against a peanut antigenfor the treatment of peanut allergy).

“Administering” or “administration” means providing a drug to a subjectin a manner that is pharmacologically useful.

As used herein, an “epitope” refers to a binding site including an aminoacid motif of between approximately six and fifteen amino acids whichcan be bound by an immunoglobulin (e.g., IgE, IgG, etc.) or recognizedby a T-cell receptor when presented by an APC in conjunction with themajor histocompatibility complex (MHC). A linear epitope is one wherethe amino acids are recognized in the context of a simple linearsequence. A conformational epitope is one where the amino acids arerecognized in the context of a particular three dimensional structure.The peanut allergen signatures identified by the methods featured in theinvention may comprise one or more peanut epitopes. An immunogenicepitope can provoke an immune response in the body, e.g., an allergicresponse.

As used herein, an “immunodominant epitope” refers to an epitope whichis bound by antibody in a large percentage of the sensitized populationor where the titer of the antibody is high, relative to the percentageor titer of antibody reaction to other epitopes present in the sameantigen. In one embodiment, an immunodominant epitope is bound byantibody in more than 50% of the sensitive population, more preferablymore than 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, or 99% of the sensitive population.The peanut allergen signatures identified by the methods featured in theinvention will typically comprising one or more peanut immunodominantepitopes.

It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that othersuitable modifications and adaptations of the methods described hereinmay be made using suitable equivalents without departing from the scopeof the embodiments disclosed herein. Having now described certainembodiments in detail, the same will be more clearly understood byreference to the following example, which is included for purposes ofillustration only and is not intended to be limiting.

EXAMPLE I Peanut Allergen Signature

The development and initial preliminary validation of a method for therelative quantitation of four peanut allergens, Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3and Ara h6, are described below. The method utilized liquidchromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry, and was based on themeasurement of representative tryptic peptides derived from each ofthese proteins. The peptides were chosen in each case to include themajority of the reported allergenic protein isoforms.

The profiling method was dependent on the digest reproducibility anddigest efficiency for the protein of interest in a complex proteinmixture. Not all proteolytic peptides are good candidates forquantitation, and whereas good ionization efficiency and consistenttryptic cleavage, as well as low probability of the peptide harboringpost-translational modification, are important aspects of the selectionprocess, issues such as interference from other peptides and othermatrix effects in a complex digest, are more difficult to predict. Onceselected, a series of both heavy isotope labeled peptides andnon-labeled synthetic versions of the selected peptides were procuredand used as internal standards and for buffer calibration curves,respectively.

Peanut extracts prepared from lightly roasted peanut flour (GoldenPeanut and Tree Nuts, Alpharetta, GA) were digested in quadruplicatewith trypsin, and then a standard was added to the digested sample. Thestandard contained two Ara h1 peptides, two Ara h2 peptides, two Ara h3peptides, and two Ara h6 peptides. The peptides in the internal standardwere labeled with one or both of ¹³C and ¹⁵N. The sequences of theinternal standards are provided in Tables 1 and 2 below.

TABLE 1 Unlabeled synthetic “Light” peptides for internal standardPeptide sequence peptide formula DLAFPGSGEQVEK (SEQ ID   ARA_L1-1C60 H93 N15 O22 NO: 238) GTGNLELVAVR (SEQ ID  ARA_L1-2 C48 H85 N15 O16NO: 239) GAGSSQHQER (SEQ ID NO:  ARA_L2-1 C40 H65 N17 O17 240)QQEQQFK (SEQ ID NO: 241) ARA_L2-2 C40 H62 N12 O14RPFYSNAPQEIFIQQGR (SEQ    ARA_L3-1 C93 H139 N27 O26 ID NO: 242)AHVQVVDSNGNR (SEQ ID NO:  ARA_L3-2 C52 H86 N20 O19 243)IMGEQEQYDSYDIR (SEQ ID   ARA_L6-1 C74 H111 N19 O28 S1 NO: 244)QMVQQFK (SEQ ID NO: 245) ARA_L6-2 C40 H65 N11 O11 S1

TABLE 2 Labeled synthetic “Heavy” peptides for internal standardPeptide sequence peptide formula DLAFPGSGEQVEK*  ARA_H1-113C6 C54 H93 15N2 N13 (SEQ ID NO: 246) O22 GTGNLELVAVR* ARA_H1-213C6 C42 H85 15N4 N11 (SEQ ID NO: 247) O16 GAGSSQHQER* ARA_H2-113C6 C34 H65 15N4 N13 (SEQ ID NO: 248) O17 QQEQQFK* ARA_H2-213C6 C34 H62 15N2 N10 (SEQ ID NO: 249) O14 RPFYSNAPQEIFIQQGR* ARA_H3-113C6 C87 H139 15N4 N23 (SEQ ID NO: 250) O26 AHVQVVDSNGNR* ARA_H3-213C6 C46 H86 15N4 N16 (SEQ ID NO: 251) O19 IMGEQEQYDSYDIR* ARA_H6-113C6 C68 H111 15N4 N14 (SEQ ID NO: 252) O28 S1 QMVQQFK* ARA_H6-213C6 C34 H65 15N4 N7 (SEQ ID NO: 253) O11 S1 K* and R* are heavy isotopelabeled amino acids where the carbon-12 has been replaced with carbon-13 and nitrogen-14 with nitrogen-15 resulting in 13C6 15N2 for lysineand 13C6 15N4 for arginine

Notably, additional peptides could have been selected and the particularcharacteristics of the proteins made it difficult to fulfill alldesirable features for all peptides. For example, the two peptides forAra h6 contain methionine, which is undesirable but difficult to avoidas Ara h6 contains an unusually high content of S-containing aminoacids. Similarly, Ara h3 contains N-terminal “missed” cleavage sitesthat have been found to be stable. Often, tryptic cleavage sites thatare very close to each other will result in preferential cleavage of oneof the sites, not both.

The internal standards were used to quantitate the digested products.Buffer calibration curves of synthetic unlabeled signature peptides weregenerated with heavy isotope-labeled internal standards added to boththe peanut extract digest and the calibration curve. Relativequantification was performed applying the internal standard andcalibration curve to determine the relative amount of signature peptidesin the peanut extract digest.

The samples containing the digested test allergens and the standardswere analyzed by nanoHPLC-MS-MS gas phase fragmentation (OrbitrapELITE™, ThermoScientific). Using the top-15 method, one sample (out ofthe four total) was analyzed three times, and the remaining threesamples were analyzed one time, to generate a total of six data files.These data files were analyzed by Proteome Discoverer™ Software (ThermoScientific). Applying the top-15 method to identify the most abundantproteins assured that peptides of high ionization and fragmentationefficiency would be identified in a consistent manner across the datasets.

The identities of the resulting fragments were determined using theUniProt sequence database at uniprot.org.

Over 90% of all known peanut allergens were detected from the peanutflour sample, including Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3, Ara h5, Ara h6, Ara h7,Ara h8, Ara h10, Ara h11, Ara h14, Ara h15, and Ara h Agglutinin. Asurvey of the identified allergens is illustrated in Tables 3-18 below.

Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3 and Ara h6 represent the major peanut allergens.

TABLE 3 Ara h1 isoforms detected in peanut flour. Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 1 B3IXL2 No Ara h 1E5G076 Yes Ara h 1 N1NEW2 No Ara h 1 N1NG13 No Ara h 1 P43237 Yes Ara h1 Q6PSU3 Yes Ara h 1 Q6PSU4 Yes Ara h 1 Q6PSU5 Yes Ara h 1 Q6PSU6 YesAra h 1.0101 P43238 Yes

TABLE 4 Ara h2 isoforms detected in peanut flour. Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 2 C0LJJ1 No Ara h2.0101 Q6PSU2 Yes Ara h 2.0201 Q6PSU2 Yes

TABLE 5 Ara h3 isoforms detected in peanut flour Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 3 A1DZF0 Yes Ara h 3A1DZF1 Yes Ara h 3 B5TYU1 Yes Ara h 3 E5G077 Yes Ara h 3 Q0GM57 Yes Arah 3 Q5I6T2 Yes Ara h 3 Q647H2 Yes Ara h 3 Q647H3 Yes Ara h 3 Q647H4 YesAra h 3 Q6IWG5 Yes Ara h 3 Q6T2T4 Yes Ara h 3 Q8LKN1 Yes Ara h 3 Q8LL03Yes Ara h 3 Q9FZ11 Yes Ara h 3.0101 O82580 Yes Ara h 3.0201 Q9SQH7 Yesn/a O82580 Yes n/a Q9SQH7 Yes

TABLE 6 Ara h5 isoforms identified in peanut flour Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 5 D3K177 Yes Ara h 5L7QH52 Yes Ara h 5 Q5XXQ5 Yes Ara h 5.0101 Q9SQI9 Yes

TABLE 7 Ara h6 isoforms identified in peanut flour Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 6 A1DZE9 Yes Ara h 6A5Z1R0 No Ara h 6.0101 Q647G9 Yes

TABLE 8 Ara h7 isoforms identified in peanut flour Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 7 Q647G8 Yes Ara h7.0101 Q9SQH1 Yes Ara h 7.0201 B4XID4 Yes

TABLE 9 Ara h8 isoforms identified in peanut flour Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 8 B1PYZ4 Yes Ara h 8B2ZGS2 Yes Ara h 8 Q0PKR4 Yes Ara h 8 Q2YHR1 Yes Ara h 8.0101 Q6VT83 YesAra h 8.0201 B0YIU5 Yes

TABLE 10 Ara h9 isoforms identified in peanut flour Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 9.0101 B6CEX8 Yes Ara h9.0201 B6CG41 Yes

TABLE 11 Ara h10 isoforms identified in peanut flour. Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 10.0101 Q647G5 Yes Arah 10.0102 Q647G4 Yes

TABLE 12 Ara h11 isoforms identified in peanut flour. Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 11.0101 Q45W87 Yes Arah 11.0102 Q45W86 Yes

TABLE 13 Ara h12 isoforms identified in peanut flour. Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 12.0101 EY396089 No

TABLE 14 Ara h13 isoforms identified in peanut flour. Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 13.0101 EY396019 No

TABLE 15 Ara h14 isoforms identified in peanut flour. Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 14.0101 Q9AXI1 Yes Arah 14.0102 Q9AXI0 Yes Ara h 14.0103 Q6J1J8 Yes

TABLE 16 Ara h15 isoforms identified in peanut flour. Peak Identified byPeanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara h 15.0101 Q647G3 Yes

TABLE 17 Ara h Agglutinin isoforms identified in peanut flour. PeakIdentified by Peanut Allergen UniProt Ref nanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara hAgglutinin P02872 Yes Ara h Agglutinin Q38711 Yes Ara h AgglutininQ43373 Yes Ara h Agglutinin Q43375 Yes Ara h Agglutinin Q8W0P8 Yes

TABLE 18 Ara h hypothetical isoforms identified in peanut flour.Hypothetical Peak Identified by Peanut Allergen UniProt RefnanoHPLC-MS-MS Ara i 2 A5Z1Q9 No Ara i 6 A5Z1Q6 No Ara d 2 A5Z1Q8 No Arad 2 A8VT41 No Ara d 2 A8VT44 No Ara d 2 A8VT45 No Ara d 2 A8VT50 No Arad 6 A5Z1Q5 No

Peptides of the major allergens are identified to form a collection ofpeptides for use as an indicator of peanut allergen content in acomposition (e.g., a “peanut peptide signature”). An ideal peptidesignature utilizes peptides that represent completely cleaved truetryptic digest products (with the possible exception of peptides thatcontain sequential arginine and/or lysine residues), where one or theother cleavage site is typically preferentially cleaved. Selectedpeptides also typically have sequence conservation with a FalseDiscovery Rate (FDR) of less than 1%, and sequence conservation acrossmultiple isoforms. Further, selected peptides typically have no orminimal post-translational modifications, including oxidation andglycosylation, and have high detection quality based on manual curationof tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS). Isoforms are represented by geneticvariations, including peptides generated by truncated or deletedsequences. An example of a high quality peptide as identified by MS-MSis the Ara h1 peptide illustrated in FIGS. 1A to 1C.

For example, Ara h1k heterogeneity was determined by comparing sequencevariations in the UniProt database records. Exemplary Ara h1 allergendigest products identified from UniProt reference P43238 are shown inTable 19. Sequences from other UniProt Ara h1 records were also compared(see Table 20). Preferred Ara h1 allergen digest products were selectedas being useful in a peanut allergen signature based on: 1)preferentially zero missed tryptic cleavage sites; 2) presence in allsequences with a False Discovery Rate (FDR) of less than 1%; 3) no orminimal post-translational modification sites; 4) high quality fragmentsas determined by manual curation of tandem Mass Spectroscopy (MS-MS)data; 5) an indication by BLAST search that the sequence is uniquewithin the peanut proteome; and 6) presence of the sequence a maximumnumber of isoforms. The resulting initial list of allergen digestproducts that were determined to be most useful candidates for profilingpeanut antigens in the peanut flour extract are shown in Tables 20-23,representing peanut allergens from Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3 and Ara h6,respectively.

TABLE 19 Ara h1 allergen digest products from UniProt Ref. P43238. SEQID Ara h1 Peptide Sequence NO: ACESRCTKLEYDPR 1 ACESRCTKLEYDPRCVYDPR 2AMVIVVVNK 3 AMVIVVVNKGTGNLELVAVR 4 AMVIVVVNKGTGNLELVAVRK 5 CLQSCQQEPDDLK6 CLQSCQQEPDDLKQK 7 CLQSCQQEPDDLKQKACESR 8 CLQSCQQEPDDLKQKACESRCTK 9CTKLEYDPR 10 CTKLEYDPRCVYDPR 11 CTKLEYDPRCVYDPRGHTGTTNQR 12 CVYDPR 13CVYDPRGHTGTTNQR 14 CVYDPRGHTGTTNQRSPPGER 15 CVYDPRGHTGTTNQRSPPGERTR 16DLAFPGSGEQVEK 17 DLAFPGSGEQVEKLIK 18 DNVIDQIEKQAK 19 DQSSYLQGFSR 20DQSSYLQGFSRNTLEAAFNAEFNEIRR 21 EDQEEENQGGKGPLLSILK 22 EDWRRPSHQQPR 23EEDWRQPREDWR 24 EEDWRQPREDWRRPSHQQPR 25 EEEEDEDEEEEGSNREVRRYTAR 26EEGGRWGPAGPR 27 EEGGRWGPAGPRER 28 EEGGRWGPAGPRERER 29 EETSRNNPFYFPSR 30EETSRNNPFYFPSRR 31 EETSRNNPFYFPSRRFSTR 32 EGALMLPHFNSK 33EGALMLPHFNSKAMVIVVVNK 34 EGDVFIMPAAHPVAINASSELHLLGFGINAENNHRIFLAGDK 35EGDVFIMPAAHPVAINASSELHLLGFGINAENNHRIFLAGDK 36 DNVIDQIEK EGEPDLSNNFGK 37EGEPDLSNNFGKLFEVKPDKK 38 EGEPDLSNNFGKLFEVKPDKKNPQLQDLDMMLTCVEIK 39EGEQEWGTPGSHVR 40 EGEQEWGTPGSHVREETSRNNPFYFPSRR 41 EHVEELTK 42EHVEELTKHAK 43 EQQQRGRR 44 EQQQRGRREEEEDEDEEEEGSNR 45 EREEDWR 46EREEDWRQPR 47 EREREEDWR 48 EREREEDWRQPR 49 ESHFVSARPQSQSQSPSSPEK 50ESHFVSARPQSQSQSPSSPEKESPEKEDQEEENQGGK 51 ESPEKEDQEEENQGGK 52 EVRRYTAR 53FDQRSR 54 FDQRSRQFQNLQNHR 55 FSTRYGNQNGR 56 FSTRYGNQNGRIR 57FSTRYGNQNGRIR 58 GHTGTTNQRSPPGERTR 59 GHTGTTNQRSPPGERTRGR 60 GQRRWSTR 61GRQPGDYDDDR 62 GRQPGDYDDDRR 63 GRQPGDYDDDRRQPR 64 GRQPGDYDDDRRQPR 65GRREEEEDEDEEEEGSNR 66 GRREEEEDEDEEEEGSNREVR 67 GSEEEGDITNPINLR 68GSEEEGDITNPINLREGEPDLSNNFGK 69 GTGNLELVAVR 70 GTGNLELVAVRK 71HADADNILVIQQGQATVTVANGNNR 72 HADADNILVIQQGQATVTVANGNNRK 73HADADNILVIQQGQATVTVANGNNRKSFNLDEGHALR 74 HAKSVSKK 75HAKSVSKKGSEEEGDITNPINLR 76 HDNQNLR 77 HDNQNLRVAKISMPVNTPGQFEDFFPASSR 78IFLAGDKDNVIDQIEK 79 IFLAGDKDNVIDQIEKQAK 80IFLAGDKDNVIDQIEKQAKDLAFPGSGEQVEK 81 IPSGFISYILNR 82 IPSGFISYILNRHDNQNLR83 IPSGFISYILNRHDNQNLRVAK 84 IPSGFISYILNRHDNQNLRVAKISMPVNTPGQFEDFFPASSR85 IRPEGREGEQEWGTPGSHVREETSR 86 IRPEGREGEQEWGTPGSHVREETSRNNPFYFPSR 87IRVLQRFDQR 88 ISMPVNTPGQFEDFFPASSR 89 ISMPVNTPGQFEDFFPASSRDQSSYLQGFSR 90ISMPVNTPGQFEDFFPASSRDQSSYLQGFSRNTLEAAFNAEF 91 NEIRISMPVNTPGQFEDFFPASSRDQSSYLQGFSRNTLEAAFNAEF 92 NEIRR IVQIEAKPNTLVLPK 93KEQQQR 94 KEQQQRGRR 95 KGSEEEGDITNPINLR 96 KGSEEEGDITNPINLREGEPDLSNNFGK97 KGSEEEGDITNPINLREGEPDLSNNFGKLFEVKPDK 98 KIRPEGREGEQEWGTPGSHVREETSR 99KNPQLQDLDMMLTCVEIK 100 KNPQLQDLDMMLTCVEIKEGALMLPHFNSK 101KNPQLQDLDMMLTCVEIKEGALMLPHFNSKAMVIVVVNK 102 KSFNLDEGHALR 103KSFNLDEGHALRIPSGFISYILNR 104 KSFNLDEGHALRIPSGFISYILNRHDNQNLR 105KTENPCAQR 106 KTENPCAQRCLQSCQQEPDDLK 107 KTENPCAQRCLQSCQQEPDDLKQK 108LEYDPR 109 LEYDPRCVYDPR 110 LEYDPRCVYDPRGHTGTTNQR 111LEYDPRCVYDPRGHTGTTNQRSPPGER 112 LFEVKPDK 113 LFEVKPDKK 114LFEVKPDKKNPQLQDLDMMLTCVEIK 115 LFEVKPDKKNPQLQDLDMMLTCVEIKEGALMLPHFNSK116 LIKNQKESHFVSARPQSQSQSPSSPEK 117 NNPFYFPSR 118 NNPFYFPSRR 119NNPFYFPSRRFSTR 120 NNPFYFPSRRFSTRYGNQNGR 121 NPQLQDLDMMLTCVEIK 122NPQLQDLDMMLTCVEIKEGALMLPHFNSK 123 NPQLQDLDMMLTCVEIKEGALMLPHFNSKAMVIVVVNK124 NQKESHFVSARPQSQSQSPSSPEK 125NQKESHFVSARPQSQSQSPSSPEKESPEKEDQEEENQGGK 126 NTLEAAFNAEFNEIR 127NTLEAAFNAEFNEIRR 128 NTLEAAFNAEFNEIRRVLLEENAGGEQEER 129NTLEAAFNAEFNEIRRVLLEENAGGEQEERGQR 130 QAKDLAFPGSGEQVEK 131 QFQNLQNHR 132QFQNLQNHRIVQIEAKPNTLVLPKHADADNILVIQQGQATVT 133 VANGNNRK QKACESR 134QKACESRCTKLEYDPR 135 QPGDYDDDRR 136 QPGDYDDDRRQPR 137 QPGDYDDDRRQPRR 138QPREDWRRPSHQQPR 139 QPREDWRRPSHQQPRK 140 QPRREEGGR 141 QPRREEGGRWGPAGPR142 REEEEDEDEEEEGSNR 143 REEEEDEDEEEEGSNREVR 144 REEEEDEDEEEEGSNREVRR145 REEGGR 146 REEGGRWGPAGPR 147 REEGGRWGPAGPRER 148 RFSTRYGNQNGR 149RFSTRYGNQNGRIR 150 RPSHQQPR 151 RVLLEENAGGEQEER 152 RVLLEENAGGEQEERGQR153 RWSTRSSENNEGVIVK 154 SFNLDEGHALR 155 SFNLDEGHALRIPSGFISYILNR 156SFNLDEGHALRIPSGFISYILNRHDNQNLR 157 SPPGERTRGR 158 SPPGERTRGRQPGDYDDDR159 SRQFQNLQNHR 160 SRQFQNLQNHRIVQIEAKPNTLVLPKHADADNILVIQQGQAT 161VTVANGNNR SSENNEGVIVK 162 SSENNEGVIVKVSK 164 SSENNEGVIVKVSKEHVEELTK 164SSPYQKK 165 SSPYQKKTENPCAQR 166 SSPYQKKTENPCAQRCLQSCQQEPDDLK 167SVSKKGSEEEGDITNPINLR 168 TENPCAQR 169 TENPCAQRCLQSCQQEPDDLK 170TENPCAQRCLQSCQQEPDDLKQK 171 TENPCAQRCLQSCQQEPDDLKQKACESR 172TRGRQPGDYDDDR 173 TRGRQPGDYDDDRR 174 VAKISMPVNTPGQFEDFFPASSR 175VAKISMPVNTPGQFEDFFPASSRDQSSYLQGFSRNTLEAAFN 176 AEFNEIR VLLEENAGGEQEER177 VLLEENAGGEQEERGQR 178 VLLEENAGGEQEERGQRR 179 VLLEENAGGEQEERGQRRWSTR180 VLQRFDQRSRQFQNLQNHR 181 VSKEHVEELTK 182 VSPLMLLLGILVLASVSATHAK 183WGPAGPR 184 WGPAGPRER 185 WGPAGPRERER 186 WSTRSSENNEGVIVK 187WSTRSSENNEGVIVKVSKEHVEELTK 188 YGNQNGR 189 YGNQNGRIRVLQR 190YGNQNGRIRVLQRFDQR 191 YTARLKEGDVFIMPAAHPVAINASSELHLLGFGINAENNHRI 192FLAGDK

TABLE 20 Ara h1 Sequences Identified in Prepared Peanut Extract #Appearance in 7 UniProt Ara h1 Peptide Sequence ReferencesUniProt Reference Nos DLAFPGSGEQVEK (SEQ ID NO: 17) 7P43238, P43237, E5G076, Q6PSU3, Q6PSU6, Q6PSU5, Q6PSU4GTGNLELVAVR (SEQ ID NO: 70) 7 P43238, P43237, E5G076,Q6PSU3, Q6PSU6, Q6PSU5, Q6PSU4 VLLEENAGGEQEER (SEQ ID NO: 177) 7P43238, P43237, E5G076, Q6PSU3, Q6PSU6, Q6PSU5, Q6PSU4DQSSYLQGFSR (SEQ ID NO: 20) 5 P43238, P43237, E5G076, Q6PSU3, Q6PSU4HADADNILVIQQGQATVTVANGNNR (SEQ 5 P43238, P43237, E5G076, ID NO: 72)Q6PSU3, Q6PSU4 NTLEAAFNAEFNEIR (SEQ ID NO: 127) 5P43238, P43237, E5G076, Q6PSU3, Q6PSU4EQEWEEEEEDEEEEGSNR (SEQ ID NO: 193) 4 P43237, E5G076, Q6PSU3, Q6PSU6IPSGFISYILNR (SEQ ID NO: 82) 4 P43238, P43237, Q6PSU3, Q6PSU4NNPFYFPSR (SEQ ID NO: 118) 4 P43238, P43237, E5G076, Q6PSU3SFNLDEGHALR (SEQ ID NO: 155) 4 P43238, P43237, Q6PSU3, Q6PSU4GSEEEDITNPINLR (SEQ ID NO: 194) 3 P43237, Q6PSU3, Q6PSU6IVQIEAKPNTLVLPK (SEQ ID NO: 93) 3 P43238, E5G076, Q6PSU4EGEQEWGTPGSEVR (SEQ ID NO: 195) 2 P43237, Q6PSU3EGEQEWGTPGSHVR (SEQ ID NO: 40) 2 P43238, E5G076IVQIEARPNTLVLPK (SEQ ID NO: 196) 2 P43237, Q6PSU3

TABLE 21 Ara h2 Sequences Identified in Prepared Peanut Extract #Appearance Ara b2 Peptide in 1 UniProt UniProt Reference SequenceReferences No GAGSSQHQER 1 Q6PSU2 (SEQ ID NO: 197) QQEQQFK 1 Q6PSU2(SEQ ID NO: 198)

TABLE 22 Ara h3 Sequences Identified in Prepared Peanut Extract #Appearance in 16 UniProt UniProt Reference Ara h3 Peptide SequenceReferences Nos RPFYSNAPQEIFIQQGR (SEQ ID NO: 199) 12 Q5I6T2, B5TYU1,Q9FZ11, A1DZF1, O82580, Q8LL03, Q9SQH7, Q647H4, Q6T2T4, Q8LKN1,Q647H3, A1DZF0 AHVQVVDSNGNR (SEQ ID NO: 200) 10 Q5I6T2, B5TYU1,Q9FZ11, O82580, Q0GM57, E5G077, Q9SQH7, Q647H3, Q6IWG5, A1DZF0FNLAGNHEQEFLR (SEQ ID NO: 201) 10 Q5I6T2, B5TYU1, Q9FZ11, Q8LL03,Q9SQH7, Q647H4, Q6T2T4, Q8LKN1, Q647H3, A1DZF0NALFVPHYNTNAHSIIYALR (SEQ ID NO: 202) 9 Q5I6T2 (3x), B5TYU1(3x), Q9FZ11 (3x), Q9SQH7 (3x), Q647H4 (3x), Q6T2T4 (3x), Q8LKN1 (3x),Q647H3 (3x), A1DZF0 (3x) SPDIYNPQAGSLK (SEQ ID NO: 203) 9Q5I6T2, B5TYU1, Q9FZ11, O82580, Q647H4, Q6T2T4, Q8LKN1, Q647H3, A1DZF0WLGLSAEYGNLYR (SEQ ID NO: 204) 9 Q5I6T2, B5TYU1, Q9FZ11, Q9SQH7,Q647H4, Q6T2T4, Q8LKN1, Q647H3, A1DZF0 VYDEELQEGHVLVVPQNFAVAGK (SEQ ID 7Q5I6T2, B5TYU1, NO: 205) Q9FZ11, O82580, Q9SQH7, Q647H3, A1DZF0SQSENFEYVAFK (SEQ ID NO: 206) 6 O82580 (3x), Q9SQH7 (3x), Q647H4 (3x),Q6T2T4 (3x), Q8LKN1 (3x), A1DZF0 (3x)AGQEQENEGGNIFSGFTPEFLAQAFQVDDR (SEQ 4 Q647H4 (3x), Q6T2T4 ID NO: 207)(3x), Q8LKN1 (3x), Q647H3 (3x) GENESDEQGAIVTVR (SEQ ID NO: 208) 4Q647H4, Q6T2T4, Q8LKN1, Q647H3 QQYERPDEEEEYDEDEYEYDEEER (SEQ ID 4Q647H4, Q6T2T4, NO: 209) Q8LKN1, Q647H3 SQSDNFEYVAFK (SEQ ID NO: 210) 4Q5I6T2, B5TYU1, Q9FZ11, Q647H3 TANDLNLLILR (SEQ ID NO: 211) 4Q5I6T2, Q9FZ11, O82580, Q8LKN1 4 B5TYU1 (3x), Q647H4TANELNLLILR (SEQ ID NO: 212) (3x), Q6T2T4 (3x), A1DZF0 (3x)TDSRPSIANLAGENSFIDNLPEEVVANSYGLPR 4 Q647H4 (3x), Q6T2T4 (SEQ ID NO: 213)(3x), Q8LKN1 (3x), A1DZF0 (3x) AHVQVVDSNGDR (SEQ ID NO: 214) 3Q647H4, Q6T2T4, Q8LKN1 AQSENYEYLAFK (SEQ ID NO: 215) 3 Q0GM57, E5G077,Q6IWG5 FNEGDLIAVPTGVAFWLYNDHDTDVVAVSLTDTN 3 B5TYU1, Q9SQH7,NNDNQLDQFPR (SEQ ID NO: 216) A1DZF0GADEEEEYDEDEYEYDEEDR (SEQ ID NO: 217) 3 Q5I6T2, B5TYU1, Q9FZ11SSNPDIYNPQAGSLR (SEQ ID NO: 218) 3 Q0GM57, E5G077, Q6IWG5SVNELDLPILGWLGLSAQHGTIYR (SEQ ID 3 Q0GM57, E5G077, NO: 219) Q6IWG5VFDEELQEGHVLVVPQNFAVAGK (SEQ ID 3 Q647H4, Q6T2T4, NO: 220) Q8LKN1VYDEELQEGHVLVVPQNFAVAAK (SEQ ID 3 Q0GM57, E5G077, NO: 221) Q6IWG5AGQEEENEGGNIFSGFTPEFLAQAFQVDDR (SEQ 2 B5TYU1, Q9FZ11 ID NO: 222)AGQEEENEGGNIFSGFTPEFLEQAFQVDDR (SEQ 2 Q5I6T2, O82580 ID NO: 223)FFVPPFQQSPR (SEQ ID NO: 224) 2 Q9SQH7, A1DZF0TDSRPSIANLAGENSIIDNLPEEVVANSYR (SEQ ID 2 Q0GM57 (3x), NO: 225)Q6IWG5 (3x) AGQEEEDEGGNIFSGFTPEFLEQAFQVDDR (SEQ 1 Q9SQH7 ID NO: 226)AGQEQENEGGNIFSGFTSEFLAQAFQVDDR (SEQ 1 A1DZF0 ID NO: 227)GENESEEEGAIVTVK (SEQ ID NO: 228) 1 Q9FZ11GENESEEQGAIVTVK (SEQ ID NO: 229) 1 A1DZF0 (3x)SPDEEEEYDEDEYAEEER (SEQ ID NO: 230) 1 A1DZF0SQSEHFLYVAFK (SEQ ID NO: 231) 1 Q647H2TDSRPSIANLAGENSIIDNLPEEVVANSYGLPR (SEQ 1 Q647H3 (3x) ID NO: 232)TDSRPSIANLAGENSVIDNLPEEVVANSYGLPR  1 B5TYU1 (SEQ ID NO: 233)TDSRPSIANQAGENSIIDNLPEEVVANSYR (SEQ ID 1 E5G077 NO: 234)VFDEELQEGQSLVVPQNFAVAAK (SEQ ID 1 Q647H2 NO: 235)

TABLE 23 Ara h6 Sequences Identified in Prepared Peanut Extract #Appearance Ara h6 Peptide in 2 UniProt UniProt Reference SequenceReferences Nos IMGEQEQYDSYDIR 2 Q647G9, A1DZE9 (SEQ ID NO: 236) QMVQQFK1 Q647G9 (SEQ ID NO: 237)

EQUIVALENTS

The disclosure may be embodied in other specific forms without departingfrom the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The foregoingembodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects illustrativerather than limiting of the disclosure. Scope of the disclosure is thusindicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoingdescription, and all changes that come within the meaning and range ofequivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced herein.

What is claimed:
 1. A method for determining a signature of peanutallergens in an aqueous medium comprising: digesting peanut allergenspresent in an aqueous medium to generate allergen digest products;fragmenting the allergen digest products to generate peptide fragments;and determining the signature of allergen digest products of peanutallergens of the aqueous medium by detecting the peptide fragments,wherein the signature comprises each of Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3, and Arah6 digest products.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the aqueous mediumis a dissolution medium, a release medium, or an analytical sample. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein an amount of peanut allergens in themedium is less than about 2 μg/ml.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising a step of comparing the signature to a signature standard. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the allergen digest products are betweenabout 4 amino acids and about 50 amino acids in length.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the signature comprises Ara h1 allergen digest productshaving an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQID NO:17, SEQ ID NO:70, SEQ ID NO:177, SEQ ID NO:155, SEQ ID NO:93 andSEQ ID NO:40.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the peanut allergens aredigested with one or more proteases selected from the group consistingof trypsin, endoproteinase Lys-C and endoproteinase Arg-C.
 8. The methodof claim 1, wherein the aqueous medium further comprises an internalstandard.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the internal standardcomprises one or more heavy isotopes.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinan amount of peanut allergens in the medium is less than about 1.5μg/ml.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein an amount of peanut allergensin the medium is less than about 1 μg/ml.
 12. The method of claim 1,wherein an amount of peanut allergens in the medium is less than about0.5 μg/ml.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein fragmenting the allergendigest products and determining the signature are performed by a methodselected from the group consisting of one or any combination of LC-MS,LC-MS-MS, nano-LC-MS-MS, and nanoHPLC-MS-MS.
 14. The method of claim 1,wherein the allergen digest products are between about 6 amino acids andabout 30 amino acids in length.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein theallergen digest products are between about 15 amino acids and about 20amino acids in length.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaturecomprises allergen digest products from Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3 and Arah6, having amino acid sequences selected from the group consisting ofSEQ ID NO:17, SEQ ID NO:70, SEQ ID NO:177, SEQ ID NO:197, SEQ ID NO:198,SEQ ID NO:199, SEQ ID NO:200, SEQ ID NO:201, SEQ ID NO:236 and SEQ IDNO:237.
 17. The method of claim 1, wherein the signature comprisesdigest products that do not contain missed proteolytic cleavage sites.18. A method for determining an in vitro release profile of peanutallergens from a substrate into an aqueous medium comprising: obtaininga sample from the aqueous medium at each of a plurality of time points;digesting the peanut allergens present in the samples to generateallergen digest products; fragmenting the allergen digest products togenerate peptide fragments; and detecting the peptide fragments for atleast two of the plurality of time points to identify the allergendigest products, thereby determining the in vitro release profile of thepeanut allergens in the aqueous medium, wherein the release profilecomprises each of Ara h1, Ara h2, Ara h3, and Ara h6 digest products.19. The method of claim 18, wherein the aqueous medium is a dissolutionmedium, a release medium, or an analytical sample.
 20. The method ofclaim 18, wherein an amount of peanut allergens in the medium is lessthan about 2 μg/ml.
 21. The method of claim 18, wherein the allergendigest products are between about 4 amino acids and about 50 amino acidsin length.
 22. The method of claim 18, wherein the fragmenting theallergen digest products and detecting the peptide fragments areperformed by a method selected from the group consisting of one or acombination of Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectroscopy(LC-MS-MS), nanoLC-MS-MS, and nano High Performance LiquidChromatography-tandem Mass Spectroscopy (nanoHPLC-MS-MS).
 23. The methodof claim 18, wherein the in vitro release profile comprises Ara h1allergen digest products having amino acid sequences selected from thegroup consisting of SEQ ID NO:17, SEQ ID NO:70, SEQ ID NO:177, SEQ IDNO:155, SEQ ID NO:93 and SEQ ID NO:40.
 24. The method of claim 18,wherein the peanut allergens are digested with one or more proteasesselected from the group consisting of trypsin, endoproteinase Lys-C andendoproteinase Arg-C.
 25. The method of claim 18, wherein the aqueousmedium further comprises an internal standard.
 26. The method of claim25, wherein the internal standard comprises one or more heavy isotopes.27. The method of claim 18, wherein the substrate comprises one or bothof nanoparticles and microparticles.
 28. The method of claim 18, whereinthe release profile is obtained over a three-hour period of time. 29.The method of claim 18, wherein an amount of peanut allergens in themedium is less than about 1.5 μg/ml.
 30. The method of claim 18, whereinan amount of peanut allergens in the medium is less than about 1 μg/ml.31. The method of claim 18, wherein an amount of peanut allergens in themedium is less than about 0.5 μg/ml.
 32. The method of claim 18, whereinthe allergen digest products are between about 6 amino acids and about30 amino acids in length.
 33. The method of claim 18, wherein theallergen digest products are between about 15 amino acids and about 20amino acids in length.
 34. The method of claim 18, wherein the in vitrorelease profile comprises-allergen digest products from Ara h1, Ara h2,Ara h3 and Ara h6, selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:17,SEQ ID NO:70, SEQ ID NO:177, SEQ ID NO:197, SEQ ID NO:198, SEQ IDNO:199, SEQ ID NO:200, SEQ ID NO:201, SEQ ID NO:236 and SEQ ID NO:237.35. The method of claim 18, wherein the in vitro release profilecomprises-allergen digest products that do not contain missedproteolytic cleavage sites.
 36. The method of claim 18, wherein therelease profile is obtained over a six-hour period of time.
 37. Themethod of claim 18, wherein the release profile is obtained over atwelve-hour period of time.
 38. The method of claim 18, wherein therelease profile is obtained over a twenty-four-hour period of time.